Oscar De La Hoya, left, stares down Floyd Mayweather, Jr. as they pose together for photographers following a February press conference in New York. Both are former Olympians and hoping to lay claim to the title of best pound-for-pound fighter. De La Hoya is a six-division world champion while Mayweather is an unbeaten four-division world champion.

The glitz and glamour of boxing at its absolute best is the expectation for a super welterweight title fight touted as the pugilistic equivalent of the Super Bowl on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Driven by a massive advertising blitz of TV, radio, print, Internet, retail outlets and corporate sponsors, the pay-per-view bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will be seen in 176 countries and could become one of the highest-grossing fights in history, worth more than $100 million.

For the oft-maligned boxing industry, once a staple of American sports, much is at stake with "The World Awaits" promotion.

"May 5 will bring a big opportunity for the sport and a big responsibility," says Richard Schaefer, CEO of De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, which has teamed with HBO to deliver a promotion with punch. "We want this fight to go down as the night that saved boxing."

Tickets to the 17,000-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena sold out in three hours, generating a Nevada-record live gate of $19 million and surpassing the $16.8 million for the second Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield heavyweight title fight in 1999 at Las Vegas' Thomas & Mack Center.

Questionable judging decisions and promoters concerned with making fights that earn money have turned off many fans, who view professional boxing as an unorganized sport with rules that differ from state to state. The proliferation of sanctioning bodies has flooded boxing with champions lacking compelling personalities to embrace.

"Boxing is obviously on the ropes right now, and the old saying is that 'the fish rots from the head down,' " says David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California Sports Business Institute. "If you are not hitting on all cylinders in the heavyweight category, you don't have great branded fighters. And the credibility of the sport is strained by having multiple champions."

Boxing hasn't had an undisputed heavyweight champion since Lewis retired in 2003. Four men — three from the former Soviet Union — lay claim to what once was sports' most noble title, heavyweight champion of the world. The watering down of boxing's glamour division affects the lighter weight classes, too.

"It really has a downstream effect," Carter says. "The only thing that mitigates that downward spiral is when you have a De La Hoya and Mayweather — both former Olympians who are well known — that are able to shore up that base.

"If you look at who the sport's branded guys are, if you can't advertise this fight, which ones can you really aggressively promote?"

Multi-platform promotion

As part of the layered promotional campaign, De La Hoya and Mayweather participated in an 11-city tour and allowed unprecedented access to their training camps for a four-part HBO reality series, De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7. The final episode airs Thursday.

According to HBO Sports spokesman Ray Stallone, the series has averaged 1.2 million viewers for first-time showings. Using The Sopranos and Entourage as lead-ins, Stallone says, "Exposed a lot of young viewers to Oscar and Floyd. That's what boxing needs."

Dallas-based sports marketing expert Larry Lundy agrees. "With boxing's waning interest, the HBO reality series is one of the best ideas to come along in a long time," Lundy says. "It's driving interest in the fight among casual fans that normally wouldn't be there."

Schaefer, a Swiss native who recently became a U.S. citizen, says attracting the casual boxing fan and converting him into a die-hard has been a thrust of the promotion. Another is to re-attract corporate sponsors. He has lined up Bally Total Fitness, Rockstar (energy drink), Cazadores (tequila), Starwood Hotels, Southwest Airlines, Tecate (Mexican beer) and 7-Eleven.

"We hope if we can give these sponsors a positive experience, aligning their brand with the sport, they will stay involved with boxing," says Schaefer, who was managing director of Swiss bank UBS before joining De La Hoya at Golden Boy.

"Most sports sponsorships today are very expensive, but boxing is so cheap for what you get. If we can convince the companies of that and show them we run a clean business, it's the best deal in sports."

The emerging popularity of mixed martial arts, namely the Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit, is another challenge as boxing strives to regain mainstream relevance. This is particularly true of younger fans, who have flocked to UFC.

A recent Saturday night UFC show from Manchester, England, on cable channel Spike TV had a viewing audience of 2.8 million, drawing more men 18 to 34 that day than NASCAR and baseball on Fox and the NBA playoffs on ESPN.

Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, says there's room for boxing and UFC, which he considers vastly different sports.

"The demographics are showing to be quite different, as well," Greenburg says. Mixed martial arts "is attracting a much younger audience. I don't think there's competition between the two. Mixed martial arts and boxing is no different than the NFL competing with Major League Baseball."

Richard Sturm, president of MGM Grand Entertainment and Sports, says his casinos have prospered hosting UFC and boxing. But he says the buzz for De La Hoya vs. Mayweather has been like no other.

"It has taken a life of its own," Sturm says. "Because people honestly believe either fighter can win, this fight has created such excitement that it seems everybody wants to be part of it. I have never received more phone calls for tickets in my life."

Rich payday

The World Awaits might prove an accurate slogan and will certainly ring true if De La Hoya vs. Mayweather exceeds the record 1.99 million buys for Holyfield-Mike Tyson II in June 1997 and $112 million in pay-per-view revenue for the June 2002 Lewis vs. Mike Tyson heavyweight title fight.

Mark Taffet, HBO's senior vice president of sports operation and pay-per-view, often tells the story of traveling on a 1993 publicity tour with George Foreman and listening to the former heavyweight champ marvel about a new wave of televising fights at a cost to the consumer.

"This pay-per-view business is going to be enormous," Foreman told Taffet. "I wish I was 10 years younger, but I'll tell you who the real beneficiary is going to be. That kid sitting two rows behind us."

"That kid" was De La Hoya, who had barely begun his pro career but already earned "The Golden Boy" nickname off his gold medal performance in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

De La Hoya has since become boxing's biggest non-heavyweight attraction as a six-division world champion and one of its leading promoters. Saturday's fight marks the second time De La Hoya's 6-year-old company has been the lead promoter of one of his fights.

He came back after a 20-month layoff last May to knock out Ricardo Mayorga and win the WBC super welterweight title. Golden Boy Promotions presented that event in association with Mayorga's promoter, Don King Productions.

De La Hoya's 17 fights on HBO PPV have generated 10.4 million buys and $492 million in revenue. He is primed to surpass Tyson and Holyfield as boxing's biggest attraction, period.

Of course, it takes two great boxers to make a great fight. Since pay-per-view's advent in 1991, the only non-heavyweight fight that has broken the 1 million PPV-buy mark (1.4 million) is De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad in '99. The gross for that fight was $71 million.

The renown of "Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather figures to help De La Hoya pass that mark. Mayweather, in just his third headlining PPV appearance, is a '96 Olympic bronze medalist who has won world titles in four weight classes and remains unbeaten.

"This is the biggest fight of Floyd Mayweather's career and a platform that most athletes only dream of," Taffet says. "Floyd's earned every step of it along the way. He's been incredible in this promotion. He knows the importance of this fight to his future."

And, perhaps more important, to boxing's future.

"A great fight is what'll make it successful," Sturm says. "You pray it's going to be an exciting fight, which is what the hype is about. There's always a concern that the audience gets what it came for. If it turns out to be the great fight we all want, I don't see why this wouldn't help future boxing events."

Pay-per-revenue

Oscar De La Hoya can become the highest-grossing
attraction in pay-per-view history Saturday after his mega-fight against
Floyd Mayweather Jr. The top three:

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.

While in Washington, D.C., Mayweather tried to upstage De La Hoya as he was speaking. The two fighters will share the stage on Saturday when they meet for the WBC super welterweight title. The fight could go down as on of the highest-grossing of all-time.

Oscar De La Hoya, left, and Floyd Mayweather, Jr., are face-to-face during a press conference at Union Station in Washington, D.C. in February.

By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article.
Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.